Second Local Testing & Youth Engagement with Board Games in Lykeio Polemidion

5 June 2026 – 9:00 am to 6:00 pm

Throughout the day, participants engaged in a series of hands-on activities that encouraged them to think creatively, work in teams, and transform their ideas into original board game concepts. By combining imagination with practical design and testing processes, the workshop enabled young people and educators to better understand the principles of game development while strengthening important skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork.

The activity successfully reflected the objectives of the GAMECHANGE project by demonstrating how innovative board games can be used as effective tools for non-formal education, youth engagement, and social interaction. Through this collaborative experience, participants became active creators of learning experiences, contributing their ideas and creativity to the development of educational games while fostering a culture of participation and innovation.

Starting at 9:00 am, youth worker Bobbie and Michalis began by going over their own experience during their time in the training in Cyprus that took place from 8 to 14 March 2026, at which time the games Save Petro! And Connected were developed. As such, split into two teams, participants had the opportunity to play both games in their entirety, testing both games mechanics, as they defer drastically.

This was when youth worker Bobbie went over the game design basics, which were the following

• 1 – The core loop - What actions players repeat again and again?
• 2 - Goal & Victory – What is the player trying to achieve? Who wins? How?
• 3 - Theme Setting - What is the game about? (story, world, idea)
• 4 - Player Interaction – How do players interact with each other? Do they work together? Or work separately against each other?
• 5 - Turn Structure - What can a player do on their turn? What options do they have?
• 6 - Rules & Playtime – What are the set of rules? What are the limitations?

After a short coffee and snack break, participants started already developing the first steps of the game by answering a set of questions about what the game will be about, how many players the game would support, turn structure and the total amount of items the game will need.

At this point, the developed ideas were as follows:

Game 1 – Cyprus Explorer

A game using the map of Cyprus as a basis, with trivia-based questions revolving around the country's history, notable sights, annual events, and even the Cyprus' constitution.

Game 2 – Get to know me

A game, using colored tiles, where participants answer questions about each other, learning about each other better.

Notably, participants wanted to develop this specific game to work better should the players not know each other, meaning its an icebreaking-based game. This was when youth workers and Michalis gave advice, based on their own experience on game-balance. Meaning, what steps participants have to ensure that no team (or player) is too far ahead of the game, that nobody is excluded should they lose, and that the game ensures that losing players have some way to catch up.

Before lunch, participants already started developing their games, delegating certain members to work on certain aspects of the game, such as cutting the cards up, drawing the board, or coming up with the trivia and icebreaking questions.

In the afternoon, once both games were finished being developed, youth worker Bobbie went over prototyping methods, where it was explained that while in the designers head the game may feel exciting, balanced, clear or fun, new players may struggle with certain aspects of the game, which is why testing is absolutely necessary. Participicants used the "guided playtest" method, meaning they directly interact with the players to play through the entirety of the game. The games were played twice, with the guide switching for each team to ensure that all players play both games.

The full descriptions of the two games developed and play tested were as follows – The description also includes changes participants would change

Game 1 – Cyprus Explorer

A game using the map of Cyprus as a basis, with trivia-based questions revolving around the country's history, notable sights, annual events, and even the Cyprus' constitution.

The game can be played 1vsll and players begin on dots from both sides of the island, with each turn requiring a question to be answered. While all players begin with 30 points, there are three categories of questions, rewarding and punishing players based on their choices. The person (or team) with the highest amount of points wins.

• Easy cards give 5 points but lose 2 points.
• Medium cards give 10 points, but loss counts as 5
• Hard points give 15 points, while loss counts as 7

Based on the internal discussion during the playtesting phase. the changes the team would make were as follows

• To not make hard questions so punishing, or offer multiple choice options, and using them giving less points.
• For the tiles to have the question difficulties, and the victory state not to be based on points, but rather who reaches a certain point on the map first.

Game 2 – Get to Know me

A game, using colored tiles, where participants answer questions about each other, learning about each other better. This game uses dice to make steps ahead. Blue tiles reward an extra turn, yellow are the ones where questions need to be asked, while green ones do nothing.

Based on the internal discussion during the playtesting phase. the changes the team would make were as follows.

• To make it clearer the order of the tiles, as well as having a snakes and ladders system.
• To make the game far longer, as the game finishes quicker should it have less players.

With a final debriefing session and showcasing how the games can be easily digitized and then reprinted using Canva and the evaluation of the day, the day was over.